Marquette University High School’s Webster Club is a member of several speech organizations. Our affiliations enable Webster Club students to compete for state and national championships, earn membership in honor societies, and join a community of peers across the country who share a love of forensics.
National Forensic League
The National Forensic League (NFL) is a national honor society committed to promoting interscholastic debate, oratory, public speaking, and interpretation of literature by encouraging a spirit of fellowship and by conferring upon deserving candidates a worthy badge of distinction. Founded in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1925 by Bruno E. Jacob, the NFL hosts a National Speech and Debate Tournament each June that awards over $130,000 in scholarships to winning students.
Webster Club participants who accumulate 25 points in speech or debate competition earn a lifetime membership in the NFL, joining over one million others including President Lyndon Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Senators Richard Lugar and William Frist, media visionary Ted Turner, Academy Award winners Patricia Neal and Don Ameche, Emmy award winners Kelsey Grammar and Shelly Long, television host Oprah Winfrey, news anchor Jane Pauley, CSPAN founder Brian Lamb, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, University President David Boren, and Federal National Mortgage CEO Franklin Delano Raines.
National Catholic Forensic League
Founded in 1951, the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) aims to promote curricular and co-curricular speech and debate activities in Catholic, private, and public secondary schools throughout the nation. Through a series of Diocesan Leagues, the NCFL holds local qualifying competitions and an annual Grand National Tournament each Memorial Day weekend. Marquette University High School is a member of the Milwaukee Diocese.
Wisconsin Debate Coaches’ Association
Committed to developing informed citizens through critical thinking, research, and the presentation of ideas in an educationally competitive environment, the Wisconsin Debate Coaches’ Association (WDCA) promotes the interests of interscholastic debate in Wisconsin by assisting in the regulation and improvement of tournaments and by serving as a forum for the airing of opinions relative to these tournaments. Founded in 1965, the WDCA hosts an annual State Tournament of Champions that awards state championships to competitors in Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum debate.
Wisconsin Forensic Coaches’ Association
The forensics companion to the WDCA, the Wisconsin Forensic Coaches’ Association (WFCA) promotes the interests of interscholastic forensics in Wisconsin by assisting in the regulation and improvement of forensic practices and by serving as a forum for the airing of opinions concerning forensic activities. The WFCA sponsors a full calendar of tournaments including the season-ending State Tournament, hosted since 1972 to honor the state’s best forensics competitors.